DSA at the U.S. Social Forum
Jobs Coalition Forms in Western Suburbs
Jobs and Financial Reform
Chicago Political Economy Group
Coalition to Save Community Banking Meeting and Rally
ICADP Annual Meeting
Socialist International Council Meets
Union Busting is a Mortal Sin

The
Congress Hotel Strike: 7 Years of Infamy

Photo by John
Scott

Be there: Monday, June 14,
4 PM to 6 PM, @ 520 S. Michigan, Chicago

At what has become an annual event,
the striking workers of the Congress Hotel will be demonstrating
in favor of immigration reform as well as protesting management
obstinance. Join them, Chicago's labor and liberal and religious
and leftist communities, and Chicago DSA and "Slim"
the skelton in demanding an end to this impasse. See www.PresidentPicketsCongress.org
for more information. Be there or be square!

Capitalism:
a Love Story: a Review

by Bill Barclay

The first question that might be asked
about Michael Moore's movie is, why the subtitle? After all,
it is clear early on that Moore does not love capitalism. When
I asked the audience this question at our showing of the film
in Oak Park, there were several answers; but most pointed to
what I think is Moore's intent. In the initial bloom of romance
we don't see our love's faults and failings, whether these be
merely the foibles that all of us have and our love learns to
live with, even feel affection for, or something more fundamental
that may doom the relationship.

In answering the question, Moore asks
us to step back to an earlier era, the 1950s and early 1960s,
part of what many have called the "golden age" of capitalism.
He shows us how we felt about the promises and seducements offered
by system (Moore does not use this term). Anita Bryant sings
about "a new day." In 1958 Flint, Michigan, has a parade
to celebrate GM's 50th anniversary (GM did not attend the 100th
anniversary event in 2008). And we are urged to "see the
USA in [our] Chevrolet." Yes, these were the times when
our love was fresh and the future glowing. Moore does remind
us that not all was perfect -- a scene of fire hoses being used
on demonstrators opposing segregation and bombs dropping on a
foreign land -- but these quickly flashed images probably embody
the amount of attention that many gave to them at the time.

The rest of Moore's film is the tracing
out of the faults and failings in the system we thought we loved.
By the end of the film no one can be in doubt that Moore believes
this relationship cannot be saved -- at least not without some
major changes. What those changes might be is perhaps less clear,
a point to which I will return.

Capitalism is
the latest in a series of Moore movies with clearly progressive
politics. It is also certainly the most ambitious and difficult
because while, as Moore says, capitalism is not a form of government,
it is more than a system. Here I think Moore has missed something.
He also says that capitalism is not a religion. However, if one's
religion is one's core values and these core values are shared
with others such that there are bonds between the many; capitalism
it seems to me qualifies. In reality, capitalism has done much
to reshape what we usually think of as religion with the prosperity
gospel, epitomized in "name it and claim it," spreading
into much of formal Christianity.

And what is the promise of this religion?
Capitalism claims to offer individual freedom on a grand scale,
the liberty for any individual to achieve whatever s/he seeks
if s/he is good enough. Therefore the reasons for failure or
even simply mid-level success lie in the individual, not in any
larger institutional structure. Former British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher articulated the essence of this belief system
when she said, "There is no such thing as society."

And it is this belief system that is
Moore's target in the film. A system is, of course, much more
difficult to define and call into question than a particular
issue such as Moore did with health care in Sicko. Thus
much of the film is Moore taking us on a tour of what he finds
the most egregious failings of our loved one. Of course he returns
to Flint and the auto industry. But now we see the town through
the eyes of finance, we watch the creation of romantic illusions
through the use of debt and then the collapse of these illusions
as houses are foreclosed and workers are laid off. In the process,
Moore removes the blinders of our love, and we end up with the
love of money rather than the fulfillment of our social selves.
Moore does this in a variety of ways, but perhaps the most memorable
is the "dead peasant" insurance policies where companies
take out insurance on employees with the company -- not the employee's
surviving family members -- as the beneficiaries. Like most Americans,
Moore returns again and again to finance and the role of financial
companies in the 2008 economic collapse. He tries to talk to
traders about derivatives and, partially in fantasy and partially
though some clever staging, tries to arrest the CEO of Goldman
Sachs. He also gets some members of Congress on camera to record
the sense of intimidation they felt when Paulson and the rest
of Bush's economic team said that their failure to approve the
bail out would destroy our economy. By the end of the movie Moore
has shown us a myriad of our (former?) love's failings.

But breaking up is hard to do, especially
if we don't know what the alternative is. Here is where much
of the progressive criticism of Moore's film has focused: he
doesn't give us an alternative, more specifically he doesn't
talk about socialism. This was also my impression after my first
viewing of the film. However, after watching it again, followed
by a discussion with the audience, I think Moore provides more
clues to an answer than I first recognized. His answer is perhaps
not a single, neat package. But he shows us two worker owned
and operated factories; he shows us how people -- including workers
at Republic Windows -- are beginning to seek alternatives. Perhaps
most significantly, however, he contrasts western and northern
Europe's "social capitalism" with what we have in the
U.S. He does not do this by going to Europe or showing us how
European institutions work differently than our own. Instead
he returns to the roots of our love affair but highlights the
promise we wanted our romance to fulfill: Moore poses FDR's economic
bill of rights and the struggle to gain these rights as the future
we should all fight for. He concludes by asking us to join him
in this fight. You can hear FDR here: http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=UwUL9tJmypI.

Bring
America Home:

the 52nd Debs -- Thomas -- Harrington
Dinner

by Bob Roman

The 2010
Debs Thomas Harrington Dinner gathered together people representing
Chicago's legal, labor, liberal, and left communities to honor
the People's Law Office and the United Electrical Workers' Western
Regional President Carl Rosen. Author William Greider was our
featured speaker. The event was held on Friday evening, May 7,
at what is becoming its current home, the Crowne Plaza Chicago
Metro, located at Madison and Halsted in Chicago.

Kim Bobo was our Master of Ceremonies.
We have been so fortunate to have her help at our Dinners. In
my opinion, she's the best since Leon Despres.

Flint Taylor accepted the award to the
People's Law Office from GOPDSA Co-Chair Tom Broderick. Taylor
went on to recognize some of the people, present and not, who
helped found the law collective and helped make it one of the
major resources in defense of civil liberties in Chicago. He
spoke briefly about the history of the People's
Law Office and its current work.

Carl Rosen accepted the Debs Thomas
Harrington award from Chicago DSA Co-Chair Ron Baiman. Rosen
found this conceptually difficult. The United Electrical Workers
(UE) sees itself as, and tries its best to be, a rank-and-file
union; in that context, an officer of the union accepting an
award could be seen as presumptuous. So he used the occasion
to promote Warehouse Workers for Justice (www.warehouseworker.org
), a UE project that is organizing warehouse workers in Chicago's
southwestern suburbs, most of whom are not actual employees but
temp workers (despite years on the job for some) with all the
vulnerability that comes with that status.

The theme of this year's Dinner was
"Bring America Home!" This was a deliberate variation
on the title of William Greider's latest book, Come Home America,
though it works very well as a demand the left should be making
more vociferously of the Obama Administration. Greider's speech
was drawn mostly from the latter part of his latest book, and
dealt with what we can do to change the direction our country
is headed. It was an optimistic talk, and for those of you who
missed it, I would suggest reading the book. Or, if you live
in Chicago and have cable, the event was taped for later broadcast
on CANTV, Chicago's public access cable network.

As someone who has helped organized
these dinners for the past twenty years, I want to thank all
of you who supported this year's event. It was especially important
this year because DSA has become one of the right-wing's favorite
hate-objects. (To be fair, they have so many!) Considering
what's become of ACORN, this is not a trivial matter. In justifying
their passion, conservatives do exaggerate our influence. But
with your help, we'll do our best to live up to their paranoia.

For an unconspiratorial, all-volunteer
organization like Chicago DSA, this is a tall order. But the
52nd Annual Dinner was an optimistic affair, and the participation
this year of so many good people gives us all the more reason
to be so. Thank you.

A Century+
of May Days: Labor and Social Struggles International Conference

by Bill Pelz

"May 1st is the only truly universal
day of all humanity, the only day when all histories and all
geographies, all languages and religions and cultures of the
world coincide." It was in describing a visit to the city
of Chicago, where International Workers' Day was born, that the
Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano penned these words.

"How fitting, in this spirit, that
trade unionists and labor historians, worker center organizers
and journalists from Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China,
Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel/Palestine, Japan,
the Netherlands, the Philippines, Scotland, Sweden, Turkey, the
UK, Venezuela, and all over the United States converged on Chicago
April 30-May 2 to participate in the conference A Century+
of May Days: Labor and Social Struggles convened by the Institute
of Working Class History and hosted by the International Studies
program at DePaul University." -- Danny Postel, conference
participant.

The conference joined a very diverse
group ranging from young activists to Japanese trade unionists
and a Japanese survivor of the atomic bomb, Dr. Theodor Bergmann,
a German anti-fascist who has long outlived Hitler, and numerous
distinguished intellectuals like Bryan Palmer, Canada's foremost
left labor historian, Lea Haro of the University of Glasgow,
Francis King from Britain's Socialist
History Society and Ottokar Luban from the International
Rosa Luxemburg Society (Berlin).

Over 163 participants discussed various
and diverse labor and social struggles -- both local and global.
Before the conference even formally began, almost three dozen
people gathered at Facets Multimedia
to watch the once banner US labor film Salt of the Earth.
Following the screening there was a lively discussion of both
the political and artistic significant of the film.

After over fifteen panels during the
day, Friday night saw a massive Labor and International Peace
Plenary with something like six dozen Japanese trade unionists
participating. Scores of conference participants took in the
May Day rally organized by the Chicago Federation of Labor
and Illinois Labor History Society (ILHS) . . . and an extensive
labor history bus tour led by Larry Spivack, President of the
ILHS on Saturday, May 1st. Then back to DePaul for more panels
and a plenary on the future of Labor History and Left History
that was well attended. Then, lack of rain and a heavy turnout
particularly by international guests, allowed a very enjoyable
outdoor banquet on Saturday night.

Sunday morning saw a plenary with Richard
Wolff, the noted Marxist economist form the University of Massachusetts
as well as a number of Chicago-based scholar activists. Sunday
also included a presentation by Chicago DSA's Reverend Gene Birmingham
on Religion and Socialism. Finally after more stimulating panel
discussions including talks by Chicago activist James Thindwa,
Katie Jordan (Coalition of Trade
Union Woman ) and Fritz Weber (from Vienna, Austria), we
reached Sunday night when the conference finally closed with
a rousing speech on "wage theft" by Kim Bobo.

The Institute of Working Class History
is planning an anthology of selected papers from the conference,
to be entitled A Century+ of May Days: Labor and Social Struggles.
Plans are very tentative, but another conference is being organized
for next year, possibly around a theme of the Paris Commune.
For further information and news of future events go to: www.iwch.info.

Editors Note: Dr. William Pelz is
a Professor of History at Elgin Community College, Chicago DSA's
Political Education Officer, and head of the Institute of Working
Class History.

Religion
and Socialism Commission

by Rev. Gene Birmingham

The recent DSA National Convention accepted
a request to renew the Religion & Socialism Commission. There
is a long history of religion seeing in socialism an expression
of social justice. Socialism is not only about economics and
politics. It is a spiritual expression of the social nature of
humanity.

The guiding philosophy of American culture,
rugged individualism, stresses a personal experience of God,
but backs away from working with all people for justice, except
for acts of charity. The Religion & Socialism Commission
invites all people to work together for the common good. Its
journal reads on the cover:

"Motivated by our different religious
traditions we believe that attitudes, priorities, and institutions
can be changed to reflect a just and democratic use of the universe's
bounty; we believe in the value of work that contributes to the
common good; and in the healing influence of respect for the
differences as well as the commonness of human experience."

Leaders of the Religion & Socialism
Commission have asked that each DSA Local sponsor an event of
religious socialism in 2010. There is a list of at least 57 people
on Chicago DSA's posting of members and interested people. This
is an invitation to any and all who would serve on a planning
committee for a Religion & Socialism event to contact me
with your own ideas: 630.787.9909. We can set up a time and place
to meet.

Panther
Action:

Gray Panthers Offer a New Outlet
for Activism in Chicago

By Giudi Weiss

Remove the ideological label from DSA
and what do you get? The Gray Panthers.

Now in its 40th year, this long-standing,
multigenerational, progressive activist organization hasn't
had a presence in Chicago for a decade. But two dedicated souls,
activist Ralph Gougis and erstwhile DSA participant Marilyn Martin,
are determined to revive it. Fittingly, they're inviting DSA
members to join them.

The Gray Panthers Motto: Age and
Youth in Action

Forget the "Gray" in its name.
Gray Panthers span the generations -- and always have. Some call
this the organization's best-kept secret.

In fact, Gray Panthers has been multigenerational
from the start. The organization was born in 1970, when Maggie
Kuhn, leading a group of friends fighting ageist employment practices,
joined forces with students demonstrating against the Viet Nam
War. The press compared their militancy to that of the Black
Panthers, and so the first Gray Panthers network was born: age
and youth working together for social and economic justice and
peace.

Gray Panthers Issues Are Your
Issues

Today there are Gray Panther networks
(chapters) across the nation. The national organization currently
focuses on four major issues: health care (single-payer, of course),
the environment, peace, and civil rights and civil liberties.
Local networks address these topics and others, from national
issues like campaign finance reform, immigration, and workers'
rights to local concerns such as housing and transportation.

Not surprisingly, Gray Panther issues
echo many of DSA's concerns. There's much more information about
the organization and its positions at www.graypanthers.org
.

DSA Members Can Help Bring the
Chicago Network to Life

As Ralph and Marilyn gear up to rebuild
the Chicago network, what they need most is local interest. When
enough new members get on board, the network can earn official
Gray Panther status, elect leadership, start holding regular
meetings, build coalitions and partnerships, and, most important,
take action on the issues of greatest interest to its members.
Gray Panther actions can be anything from letter-writing and
petitions to rallies and street theater and much more.

If you're interested in joining this
nation-wide network of activists and helping to shape local actions,
contact Marilyn Martin at mjmartin1945@yahoo.com
or Ralph Gougis at 773.924.2301.

Other
News

compiled by Bob Roman

DSA at the U.S. Social Forum

DSA is participating in the U.S. Social
Forum this June 22-26 in Detroit, Michigan. At least ten thousand
activists from all around the country are expected to participate.
DSA and YDS are organizing five workshops and DSA is organizing
an "ice cream reception" for DSA members and friends
in the labor tent on Friday, June 25th. UAW Secretary/Treasurer
Elizabeth Bunn, and DSA Honorary Chair Frances Fox Piven are
just two of the DSA speakers at the Social Forum. The sessions
we are organizing:

Movement Building and the Atlanta Fighting
Foreclosure Coalition

Socialism is the Alternative

A Permanent Jobs Program for the United
States: Economic Restructuring to Meet Human Needs

Reclaiming the Ivory Towers: Students
Achieving Access and Affordability

WTF is Socialism Anyway???: The Campus
as a Battleground of Class Struggle

More information about DSA's workshops
and the reception will be available on the DSA web site (www.dsausa.org) soon. A complete
list of sessions at the U.S. Social Forum and other information
is available at www.ussf2010.org
, although the schedule will not be finalized until June.

Jobs Coalition Forms in Western
Suburbs

In an exciting development, a new coalition
is forming in the western suburbs around calling for an ongoing
federal program to create new jobs. The second meeting of this
group (its name is not yet settled) will be Saturday, June
12, 1:00 - 3:00 PM, UAW hall at 1700 Oakton Road in Montgomery.
Amy Dean, coauthor of A New New Deal: How Regional Activism
Will Reshape the American Labor Movement, will be the featured
speaker (http://www.amybdean.com/
).

Convened by the Confederation of Northern
Illinois Peace Groups, over forty individuals from labor, peace,
and other organizations met April 17 to discuss the possibility
of joining forces. The program featured Rev. Geri Solomon, from
Aurora Peace
and Justice; DSA members Dave Rathke, Illinois Education
Association, and Bill Barclay, Chicago
Political Economy Group; and Susan Hurley, Chicago
Jobs with Justice . The western suburbs are no longer the
bastion of Republicans, and people face serious problems with
un- or under-employment, foreclosures, balanced economic development,
etc. Those gathered decided to focus on jobs. For more information,
contact Peg Strobel: peg.strobel@sbcglobal.net
.

The next day more than 12,000 people
marched in NYC. The march went down Broadway into the financial
district and was focused on jobs and financial reform. Two days
later more than 20,000 marched again in Chicago denouncing the
new Arizona immigration law and calling for immigrant rights.

Chicago Political Economy Group

DSA members and CPEG founders Ron Baiman
and Bill Barclay were two of the speakers at a Global Studies
Association session on "The Political Economic Crisis"
in Champaign-Urbana on May 8. Bill described the rise of finance
in the US and the logic and revenue potential of a tax on the
trading of financial assets. Ron sketched the outlines of a new
political economy. The previous week, on May 1, Bill presented
the CPEG developed and DSA endorsed jobs program to the Champaign-Urbana's
Socialist Forum. You can find more on all of these presentations
at www.cpegonline.org
.

Coalition to Save Community Banking
Meeting and Rally

Formed in the wake of the FDIC October
2009 seizure of Park National Bank and its sale to US Bank, the
Coalition to Save Community Banking has been working to call
attention to the plight of communities during the banking crisis,
to support legislation that would strengthen banks that invest
in struggling communities, and to convince US Bank to honor,
through a Community Benefits Agreement, some of the commitments
Park National made in the West Side, Oak Park, and Maywood. The
Coalition is beginning to work on the related issue of foreclosures;
US Bank is trustee or servicer on the 3rd largest number of foreclosed
properties in Chicago; and holds a significant number in Maywood
as well.

You're invited to a public meeting to
express your concerns and hear an update: Tuesday, June 8, Hope
Baptist Church, 5900 W. Iowa, Chicago, 6:30 - 8:30. The next
day, Wednesday, June 9, we will hold a rally downtown. For more
details, contact Peg Strobel: peg.strobel@sbcglobal.net

ICADP Annual Meeting

The Illinois Coalition to Abolish the
Death Penalty's Annual Meeting will take place on Tuesday, July
13th at 6 pm at the Illinois State Bar Association Offices, 20
S. Clark St., Suite 900, Chicago, IL 60603. The Annual Meeting
is free to members and $40 for non-members.

This year the ICADP will honor author
and attorney Scott Turow for his outstanding work toward abolition.
ICADP will also be honoring the Illinois State legislators who
are currently co-sponsoring our abolition bills, including Rep.
Karen Yarbrough, Rep. Angelo Saviano, Sen. William Delgado, Rep.
Barbara Flynn Currie, Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, and Sen. Pamela
J. Althoff. Chicago DSA is an organizational member of the ICADP.

The ICADP is also having a benefit concert
at Fitzgerald's, 6615 Roosevelt Rd in Berwyn on June 15, doors
opening at 7 PM. Admission is $20.

Socialist International Council
Meets

The next Socialist
International Council meeting will be held at the United
Nations Headquarters in New York on Monday 21 and Tuesday 22
June, opening at 10 AM on the 21st and concluding at 1 PM on
the 22nd.

The Council agenda will focus issues
with regard to the global economy, as well as the continuation
of the debate on Climate Change in advance of the COP16 meeting,
and recent developments in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation.

As usual, the elected members of the
Presidium will meet on the eve of the Council, Sunday 20 June,
for a working dinner, preceded that day by the Finance &
Administration Committee in the morning and the Ethics Committee
in the afternoon.

DSA is a member of the Socialist International.
The last time the Council met in the States (strictly speaking
the United Nations) was in September of 1996. The composition
of the DSA delegation to this meeting is still under discussion
at press time.

Union Busting Is a Mortal Sin

Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice,
a national organization based largely in cyberspace (there's
a snailmail node in Massachusetts), on May 1st issued a statement
condemning union busting as a mortal sin. The statement begins:

"Union busting refers to the action
of any person who seeks to prevent employees from forming a labor
union, or who attempts to undermine or destroy an existing union.
This person is in grave material violation of Catholic Social
Doctrine on labor unions. This violation of Catholic Doctrine
constitutes material grounds for mortal sin, because it stands
in grave violation of: 1) both the letter and spirit of Catholic
Social Doctrine; 2) the roots of this Doctrine in the First Commandment
(idolatry), the Fifth Commandment (scandal), and the Seventh
Commandment (theft)."

Thanks to Michael Baker, Bill Barclay,
Tom Broderick, and Peg Strobel, as they contributed material
to Other News.

New
Ground #130.1

06.01.2010

Contents

0. DSA News

Chicago DSA Membership Convention

1. Politics

Who Wins, Who Loses in the TIF
Game
Crime Wave
Budget Woes

2. Democratic Socialism

To the Final Conflict

3. Upcoming Events of Interest

DSA News

Chicago DSA Membership ConventionChicago DSA's annual membership
convention will be on Saturday, June 19, 12:30 PM, at the Chicago
DSA office. The office is located at 1608 N. Milwaukee in Room
403. This is at the 3-way intersection of Milwaukee, North, and
Damen Avenues in the Northwest Tower Building (aka "Coyote
Tower). In addition to the Damen, Milwaukee, and North avenue
bus routes, the building is next to the Damen Avenue station
on the CTA Blue Line to O'Hare. You can wave at us as you ride
by. Street parking is possible albeit mostly metered.

This is mostly a business meeting. We
will be electing a Female Co-Chair, Treasurer, and Political
Education Officer for two year terms, and we will be adopting
a budget. All DSA members ought to attend, though if you did,
it's not likely we'd all fit. Come anyway and start a riot. For
more information, call 773.384.0327.

Politics

Who Wins, Who Loses in the TIF
GameIn The Reader, Mike Dumke
and Ben Joravsky use the recently improved transparency of Tax
Increment Financing (TIF) districts to examine just where the
money is coming from and where the money is going. Despite being
sold as an economic development tool for neighborhoods on the
skids, TIFs have become a way for Chicago to finance infrastructure
improvements without involving the city council, and, further:
them as have, gets. Read it HERE.

Crime WaveWith the passage of SB 3568,
Illinois has become the latest state to crack down on wage theft.
With effectively no money for enforcement, one wonders, but nonetheless,
read about it at the Progressive
States Network.

Budget WoesAnd speaking of money, the Center
for Tax and Budget Accountability just released a quick summary
of how deep a deficit the State of Illinois has dug itself. It's
bad, it's brief, and you can read it HERE.

Democratic Socialism

To the Final ConflictWhile parts of the left have
been despairing over Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan as yet
another Obama sell-out to the corporate class, the rightwing
has been denouncing Kagan as, what else, a socialist. This is
mostly on the basis of her undergraduate thesis, To the Final
Conflict: Socialism in New York City, 1900 -- 1933. If you've
been curious about it, a somewhat bigoted libertarian web site,
Infidels Are Cool has a copy of the PDF HERE
(Princeton University is not amused, and one web site, Red
State, removed it in response to a curt message from the
university.). Another (slightly abridged but legitmate, I think)
version can be found HERE.
It's nice history, check it out. (Thanks to Jonathan Birnbaum
for the heads up.)

Upcoming Events of Interest

Events listed here are not necessarily
endorsed by Chicago DSA but should be of interest to DSA members,
friends and other lefties. For other events, go to http://www.chicagodsa.org/page9.html.

Saturday, June 12, 1 PM to 3 PMJobs for All Illinois Coalition
UAW Local 145 Hall, 1700 Oakton Rd, Montgomery
Featuring Amy Dean; help get the ball rolling. Call 847.742.6602
for more information.

Saturday, June 12, 2:30 PM"On Company Business"
Chicago Public Library Lincoln Park Branch, 1150 W. Fullerton,
Chicago
A screening of On Company Business, a unique, rare and
at one time suppressed documentary history of the CIA, by the
late documentary filmmaker Allen Francovich. An Open
University of the Left presentation.

Monday, June 14, 4 PM to 6 PMCongress Hotel Picket and
Rally520 S. Michigan Ave, Chicago
Protest management's failure to negotiate and demonstrate in
support of immigrant rights. Click HERE
for more information.

DSA News

Chicago DSA Membership ConventionChicago DSA's annual membership
convention will be on Saturday, June 19, 12:30 PM, at the Chicago
DSA office. The office is located at 1608 N. Milwaukee in Room
403. This is at the 3-way intersection of Milwaukee, North, and
Damen Avenues in the Northwest Tower Building (aka "Coyote
Tower). In addition to the Damen, Milwaukee, and North avenue
bus routes, the building is next to the Damen Avenue station
on the CTA Blue Line to O'Hare. You can wave at us as you ride
by. Street parking is possible albeit mostly metered.

This is mostly a business meeting. We
will be electing a Female Co-Chair, Treasurer, and Political
Education Officer for two year terms, and we will be adopting
a budget. All DSA members ought to attend, though if you did,
it's not likely we'd all fit. Come anyway and start a riot. For
more information, call 773.384.0327.

DSA at the U.S. Social ForumThe Democratic Socialists of
America and the Young Democratic Socialists are organizing
several panels at the U.S.
Social Forum in Detroit later this month, as well as a reception,
and of course they'd like to know just who among DSA members
is planning to attend. Let Theresa Alt know, please; send
her an email.

Politics

Stacking the Deck Against an
Oak Park Living WageIn Oak Park's Wednesday Journal:

"As our village board prepares
to take up the issue of a living wage ordinance for the Village
of Oak Park, is the fix in? The Community Relations Commission
was tasked by our village board to research the impact that a
living wage ordinance would have on the village. After many trying
months, the commission voted to issue one report: the one that
the majority of the commission endorsed.

"While the commissioners worked
on their report, then-chair John Murtagh wrote and disseminated
a personal opinion indicating his perception of risk that enacting
a living wage ordinance would have. He sent this to members of
the Oak Park business community and to the village board, prior
to the official report. Inappropriately, our village board designated
Murtagh's opinion the 'minority living wage report.'" READ
MORE.

Jobs, Jobs, JobsThe American Jobs and Closing
Tax Loopholes Act is a jobs bill our economy needs. It is not
enough, but it is something the Senate should pass. Today the
Senate is scheduled to vote on a key procedural motion--an up
or down vote on the legislation. Please call or email
your senators to urge them to support an up or down vote on the
American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act. To contact your
senators you can call the congressional switchboard 202-224-3121
and ask for your senator by name or you can email them through
the Senate web site
(search menu is on the upper right hand side of the page). Alternately,
for the shy ones out there, the AFL-CIO is running a cyber campaign
that can be found HERE.

Congress Hotel StrikeMembers and friends of UNITE
HERE Local 1 protested the Congress Hotel's ongoing refusal to
come to an agreement at a mass rally and picket line in front
of the hotel on Monday, June 14. Post event coverage of the event
includes:

And earlier this month the Hyatt hotel
chain held its first shareholder meeting in Chicago and was
challenged by clergy to come to an agreement with its employees.

Wal-Mart
Offensiveby Bob Roman
It sure is nice when you have money to throw at a problem. This
is what Wal-Mart is doing to crack the Chicago market. You may
have noticed some CTA L cars newly wrapped in advertising urging
citizens to ask their alderman to allow Wal-Mart into the Chicago,
referring them to Chicago's "311" non-emergency call
center (to be connected with the appropriate alderman, apparently)
or to a web site Wal-Mart has set up. They've also been running
radio ads (notably on WBBM-AM) and slipping "public service"
items into the news stream.

Opponents of Wal-Mart are not, strictly
speaking, opponents of Wal-Mart. Mostly they just want Wal-Mart
to pay a living wage, at least, if they are to do business here
in the city. The reasons are pretty obvious. Poverty wage jobs
will force other, competing businesses to cut wages or benefits
for their own employees, encouraging a "race to the bottom"
for workers. Poverty wage employees, whether at Wal-Mart or elsewhere,
won't have money to support commerce, to support government services,
to properly support and educate their children.

And while "big-box" stores
like Wal-Mart do bring the consumers some advantages, they also
have the disadvantage of promoting a car-centered life style
that is expensive for the less well-off and is expensive for
the government.

Advocates of good jobs can't pay for
advertising wraps of CTA cars. But they do have a few useful
web sites. Check out the Good
Jobs Chicago Coalition and Good
Jobs First - Illinois as two examples. Wal-Mart's efforts
at expansion are still corralled in a City Council committee,
but it's not a stable (begging your pardon) situation in the
long run. You might want to call that 311 number as well.

Illinois Legislative Round-UpThe Progressive States Network
(PSN) has provided THIS
handy round-up of the more important legislation that passed
the Illinois legislature this year, as well as some of the more
significant legislation that didn't quite make it. For more information,
the synopsis provides useful links to other sites.

PSN is also tracking states'
implementation of Obama's health insurance reform. This includes
information about efforts
at blocking the reform. So far, conservative efforts to have
states "nullify" the reform have passed in Idaho, Utah,
Georgia, and Virginia. Ballot referendums are pending in Missouri
and Arizona. 25 other state legislatures have rejected nullification
measures.

The Center for Budget and Tax Accountability
has updated its Illinois budget deficit estimate. Read it HERE.

A New New Deal:
Labor's Role in the Obama EraAt Dissent Magazine,
Nelson Lichtenstein writes:

"WITH A perilous set of midterm
elections on the horizon, it would be understandable if labor
and its liberal allies just closed ranks with President Obama
and the Democrats, downplayed any disappointment they might feel,
and muted their critique of his often lukewarm liberalism. After
all, if the Republicans take one or both houses of Congress,
then the whole Obama presidency will be in danger.

"As every good unionist knows,
solidarity is a great thing, but in this case it is the wrong
prescription for the American labor movement." READ
MORE.

Ars Politica

America
Relates to the World

"Part of him is so well-meaning"
...
true of Genghis, true of Goering.
That part is rather small, you see.
A back-bench fringe minority
bereft of real authority.
But it's useful in his dealings
to reveal some human feelings.
His smile's warm, his aura mellow.
The devil is a hail fellow.

-- Hugh Iglarsh

Democratic Socialism

The Bright Side of Social EuropeFrom the pan-ideological New
America Foundation, Steven Hill writes:

"...the brightest spots in the
postcollapse landscape are in Europe, which long ago advanced
a degree of economic democracy that has proved its mettle in
this crisis and therefore deserves closer inspection. If Americans
want to learn about cooperatives, Europe is a great place to
start. They produce an estimated 12 percent of the GDP of the
European Union and involve, directly or indirectly, at least
60 percent of the population. Besides the Mondragon co-ops in
Spain, in which 256 companies employ 100,000 people in industry,
retail, finance and education, there's also Coop Italia, which
operates the largest supermarket chain in Italy, employing 56,000
with more than 6 million members; housing co-ops like Poland's
TUW; and the Co-operative Group in Britain, which is the world's
largest consumer-owned business, with 4.5 million members."

Coops, Co-determination, and Workers
Councils: oh my. HT to Ron Baiman for The Nation version
of this article. READ
MORE.

Upcoming Events of Interest

Events listed here are not necessarily
endorsed by Chicago DSA but should be of interest to DSA members,
friends and other lefties. For other events, go to http://www.chicagodsa.org/page9.html.

Saturday, June 26, 6:30 PMThe People's Journey
Wellington Avenue UCC, 615 W. Wellington, Chicago
"Citizens from IRAQ, PALESTINE (GAZA), AFGHANISTAN (video
conference) and VETERANS of the "GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR"
sharing their experiences, moving beyond political rhetoric and
conversing with people of all persuasions." More
Information

Wednesday, June 30, 2 PM to 5 PMAccess Living Open House
Access Living, 115 W. Chicago, Chicago
You are invited to visit Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago
to learn what services we offer people with disabilities who
live in Chicago. To RSVP call Bhuttu Mathews at 312.640.2115.

New
Ground #130.3

07.01.2010

Contents

0. DSA News

Young Democratic Socialists Summer
Conference
Socialist International Council Meeting

DSA News

Young Democratic Socialists
Summer Conferenceis planned for August 5 through
8 at the Valley Brook Inn in New York. For more information,
CLICK HERE.

Socialist International Council
MeetingNew Ground 130 "Other
News" noted that the Socialist International Council
was meeting in New York June 21 - 22. A report
on the meeting, including photos and the texts of statements
adopted at the meeting, has been posted on the SI's web site.
The SI's "Statement
on the Global Economy and Financial Reform" is of particular
interest, being of more substance than these things usually are.

Politics

Oak Park Living WageWhen public funds are spent,
should employees benefit along with employers? The voters of Oak Park said "YES"
by a 20% margin on a referendum on our November, 2008 ballot.

After Oak Park voters endorsed a living
wage ordinance, our Village Board tasked a volunteer citizen
commission ~ Community Relations Commission ~ to study
the impact that a living wage ordinance would have on Oak Park.
After thirteen months of in-depth study, the commission voted
seven to two to endorse a living wage ordinance.

Our Village Board will take up this
issue for the first time on July 6th, 2010. Your presence
in support of a living wagewould be truly helpful. Help
end poverty wages for full-time work.

Tuesday, July 6th,
7:30 PM Oak Park Village Hall
123 Madison, Oak Park
Enter from parking lot on south side of building.

Airport
Workers Seek Living Wageby Jack Metzgar
Some 2,500 people work at the retail shops and food outlets at
O'Hare and Midway airports, and most of them do not make a living
wage by the standard of the Chicago Jobs and Living Wage Ordinance
($11.03 an hour). Over the last two months these workers have
been mobilizing to try and convince the city's Department of
Aviation (DOA) to change that situation as it redoes most of
its lease agreements with the companies who profit from passengers'
needs as they wait for airplanes.

Led by UniteHere Local 1, the workers
have petitioned DOA Commissioner Rosemarie Adolino to meet with
them to discuss their proposal for making "living wages,
job stability, and labor peace" part of the requirements
companies at the airports must meet if they are to do business
there. Even though several aldermen who sit on the city's Aviation
Committee support the proposal, Adolino has refused to meet with
the workers about their ideas for improving both work lives and
customer service at the airports.

On July 1 a delegation of 30 workers,
along with community and religious supporters, filled the lobby
at Adolino's office near the airport to see if anybody would
talk with them. Deputy Commissioner Michael Boland eventually
appeared to explain that there was nothing he could do because
the Commissioner was out. As he was pressed by the workers, however,
he agreed to arrange a meeting where DOA officials would finally
listen to what airport workers propose.

What the workers are asking for are
a set of modest standards already enforced at many airports,
including those in Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, San Francisco,
Cleveland, Providence, and Miami. These standards would actually
benefit the city and its airports in numerous ways that Commissioner
Adolino might recognize if she just listens to what the workers
have to say.

Wal-Mart
Rampantby Bob Roman
It's not all that unusual for progressives (a nice generic term
for whatever combination of liberals, labor, and leftists is
at hand) to have their asses kicked while proclaiming victory,
the boot to the fundament apparently being an uplifting experience.
But when, last week, the Chicago labor movement pulled the plug
on opposition to a second Wal-Mart to be built in the Pullman
neighborhood, their proclamations of an historic agreement between
Labor and Wal-Mart sounded a bit thin, as if there were far too
much helium in the atmosphere, even before Wal-Mart bluntly denied
that any such agreement existed. The document Labor referred
to, Wal-Mart said, was an agreement with the Pullman community though in truth no one from the community agreed
to it -- or possibly Wal-Mart traded $24 in beads and trinkets
with the first person they met on the street. In effect, the
document is more like Wal-Mart's pledge to the community. Even
then, at the very end, Wal-Mart reserved the right to do whatever
it pleased, so long as it didn't break the law: truly an aspiration
on the part of Wal-Mart. Furthermore, Wal-Mart's "community
benefits memo" also is specifically for the Pullman store.
There is nothing in it that indicates it would apply to any of
the other stores it is planning for Chicago.

What does Wal-Mart pledge?

A starting wage of a couple of dozen
pennies more than Illinois' legal minimum wage, to be followed,
in about a year of employment, with a raise to about $9.15 an
hour. Wal-Mart claims their employees in their current westside
store average $11.77 an hour.

Union construction jobs, up to 2000
of them. This is possibly a bit more substantive, but it's also
hard to imagine that it doesn't represent anything Wal-Mart wasn't
planning to do otherwise, though they are perfectly capable of
importing contractors from the ends of the Earth just to make
a point. Still, be careful what you wish for. Labor's civil wars
have begun spreading to the building trades, with the Carpenters
Union in particular organizing other crafts. Wal-Mart, for
example, is constructing a store in way downstate Godfrey, Illinois,
using Carpenter Union electricians, rather than workers represented
by the IBEW. It's a Chicago contractor, too, apparently.

Minority hiring and business opportunities.
Lots of it. This is probably the most promising part of the Wal-Mart's
pledge, but once again not likely much beyond what they would
have done anyway absent the uproar.

$20 million in charity contributions
toward community economic development. It's probably not a good
thing to disrespect decency no matter how humble, but the lefty
cynic in me regards this as a bribe
to the local ruling class so Wal-Mart will be accepted into
the local community. The gross amount might possibly be larger
than usual, but this is not untypical behavior for Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart's community benefits memo
makes the local alderman the go-to guy for several of it's pledges,
most particularly the pledges listed on the first page so they
are hard to miss. If you've ever wondered why many politicians
are so cheaply bribed, the explanation is simple: the money is
secondary to the transaction itself. The transaction demonstrates
that the briber acknowledges the bribee to be among the central
figures in getting the project done. In politics, this is very
important. This first page of the memo was probably worth dozens
of thousand dollar campaign contributions, especially as other
Aldermen envision themselves in the same position.

Finally, any number of folks have pledged
to make sure Wal-Mart lives up to its pledges, Alderman
Howard Brookings for one. But it's hard to see this as particularly
serious. And if this were not enough, US Bank is apparently financing
the Pullman store using money from the federal anti-foreclosure
Neighborhood
Stabilization Program.

Old Gene Debs never had much luck with
Pullman, either. "Still a company town," he sighs from
the grave.

In the mean time, Wal-Mart continues
on the offensive. Contrary to Mayor Daley babblings, opposition
to Wal-Mart is not just a Chicago thing but has been widespread
even in the suburbs. Now Wal-Mart is suing
one of its competitors, Supervalu, saying that opposition
to proposed Supercenters in Mundelein and New Lenox was a put-up
job of astro-turfing. And remember Wal-Mart's efforts to become
a bank? It just succeeded
in Canada, and the U.S. may not be far behind.

Can you liberals out there still pronounce
the word "anti-trust?"

America
Arfs and Goes Homeby Tom BroderickAMERICASPEAKSis an
organization with a mission. They claim that it is to provide
"Americans with a greater voice in the most important decisions
that affect their lives." Having spent a Saturday at a National
Town Hall Meeting, I would characterize it as sales job by deficit
hawks.

While I am still unclear how outreach
by the organization was undertaken, approximately 3,500 people
attended through electronic technology, which was not always
at its best. Nineteen cities from eighteen states were connected
by video link. Other sites w/o video link also took part. In
Chicago, I'd say there were approximately 400 attendees. Upon
registration, we were assigned tables. My table started with
ten plus a moderator: three African American women, three Caucasian
women, one teenage Hispanic woman, one Asian American man and
one Caucasian man. Overall, Hispanics were short on representation.

Our goal, over the course of the day,
was to cut the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion. We had been
supplied advanced electronic copies of material, which was subsequently
handed out at the event. One item was called "Federal Budget
101 ~ An Introduction to the Federal Budget and Our Fiscal Challenges."
This was our primer, which provided the background on our deficit.

Claiming "Rising deficits and debt
in the coming decades will be driven largely by rising health
care costs and an aging population," the primer left single
payer healthcare out of consideration. It also didn't suggest
allowing the federal government to negotiate drug costs for Medicare
and Medicaid.

At the beginning of the event, we were
told that we could make suggestions for consideration by the
organization, but that they would not be used for this deficit
cutting exercise because they had no dollar value assigned. Early
on there was enough interest in single payer healthcare that
it was announced this would be included in the final report.
There was much applause and cheering in Chicago.

In addition, we were offered the option
to cut the military budget by 5%, 10%, 15% or not at all. Enough
pushback by participants made it clear that many wanted to cut
the military budget by more than 15%.

Actual discussion around the table was
not encouraged. The moderator at our table said he would not
allow anything to interfere with the goal of the event. This
was the cutting of the budget by $1.2 trillion.

After we had gone through the exercise,
we had failed to achieve our goal. Our moderator said we had
to reconsider our choices to achieve our goal. The "our"
was obviously AMERICASPEAKS. While I made no changes
to my budget input, people at our table did make changes because
we successfully cut the deficit by $1.4 trillion.

This daylong event was not about education
on the budget, but rather a faux democratic process to achieve
consensus on a portion of the budget and the deficit. In the
primer, there is a pullout quote: "The federal budget is
an expression of our priorities as a people and our values as
a nation." Given the pushback on the lack of a single payer
option and on the options we were given in cutting the military
budget, AMERICASPEAKS had the opportunity to learn
much about us and our values. Did they listen and learn?

Ars Politica

Upcoming Events of Interest

Events listed here are not necessarily
endorsed by Chicago DSA but should be of interest to DSA members,
friends and other lefties. For other events, go to http://www.chicagodsa.org/page9.html.

Tuesday, July 6, 7:30 PMOak Park Living Wage Ordinance
Oak Park Village Hall, 123 Madison, Oak Park
The Oak Park Village Board considers the report from the Oak
Park Community Relations Commission on a living wage ordinance.

Saturday, July 17, 2PM"The New Jim Crow"
St. Martin's Episcopal Church, 5710 W. Midway Park, Chicago
Toussaint Losier leads a discussion of Michelle Alexander's new
book. Also the regular quarterly meeting of the NAARPR.
Free and open to the public.